Cal Women's Hoops Holds on in 75-69 win over Syracuse

Stacking wins in the dog days

Oniyah with a block on Thursday vs BC

In the final month of the regular season, you’ll take any wins that you can get. Everyone’s tired, beat up, and giving everything that’s left in the tank. But as Charmin Smith said postgame to her team, this is what they signed up for in the pursuit of being a NCAA Tournament team. Cal found themselves in a bout throughout the afternoon in Haas, as Syracuse never let the Bears get away after getting pummeled by Stanford earlier in the week. Everyone needed to execute down the stretch on both ends of the floor, and in the end it produced a well earned 75-69 win for Cal over Syracuse.

Cal goes deeper into the bench

The rotation for the Bears was a bit bigger than usual against the Orange. Natalia Ackerman returned from injury and saw time at the backup five, alongside Gabrielle Abigor and Jayda Noble. Additionally, Gisella Maul also saw time on the court, expanding the amount of Cal players that suited up to 9. Its been hot and cold in terms of knowing who exactly will come off the bench in a given game for the Bears, but at least in this matchup Charmin Smith was more willing to give others time.

When you consider the premise up top that we are in the dog days of the season, the more people that play, the merrier. Cal needs its best five in the best possible shape physically and mentally as they head into postseason play. The minutes distribution will be something to monitor down the stretch, especially in terms of how much can you ride the starters/trust the bench when games get tight.

Kayla Williams was composed

A lot of what Cal does successfully and unsuccessfully hinges on Kayla Williams being the fulcrum of the offense. Williams doesn’t always put up the sheer numbers, but does a little bit of everything right when you need it. Against the Orange, it was the poise and pace that she played with that gave Cal the advantage. Postgame, Kayla stated that it was all about probing the paint and taking what the defense gave her, whether it resulted in a bucket that padded her 21 points or a dropoff to the post players for a big time shot.

In the games where Cal hasn’t gotten into its stuff cleanly, the Bears have struggled consistently. Today was another notch in the list of matchups where when Cal does what it wants to do, more often than not they will get the best results. Charmin Smith was pleased post game in the sense that this was a result of progress.

They aren’t all flashy but they count the same

On paper, Cal should’ve probably beat Syracuse by 12-15+ points. The Orange were 10-14 and 4-9 in conference, coming off a slaughter on the farm. Cal, sitting at 20-6 and 8-5 in ACC play, has done more than enough at Haas this season and in most cases would’ve beaten Syracuse by more.

However, as the saying goes, that’s why they play the game. Syracuse was poised themselves and forced Cal to execute time and time again. Other than some timely free throw misses (20/29 overall), the Bears generally were good enough to win. Cal was noticeably more intent with what they were doing after Ioanna Krimili and Georgia Woolley got into it after a jump ball sequence. That’s not to say that the team was flat by any stretch but this circumstance tightened the screws that much more.

Cal heads on the road to take on the Virginia schools this upcoming week, starting with the Virginia Cavaliers Thursday at 4:00 PM PT on ACC Network Extra.

Epilogue: Charles Barkley, Inside the NBA panelist and NBA legend, shouted out the team and Charmin Smith during the week on air. With the NBA in town for all-star weekend, Barkley gave the Bears some shine after an interaction at dinner. Coach Smith stated postgame that she was appreciative of Barkley shedding a light on the program and that he intends to give the team more flowers if they win a NCAA Tournament game.